


Retribution

by Lyatt1941



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Endgame Wyatt Logan/Lucy Preston, F/M, Feels, Sad, Speculation, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 21:12:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16416053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyatt1941/pseuds/Lyatt1941
Summary: This is my take on the the excerpts we received from the leaked script pages.  We're talking Timeline Zero Lucy here...not the one who came swinging out of the LifeBoat - no, her future changes because of her actions with the journal.  This is what spurs her to take that action and will eventually bring us back to where our present bunker team realize the why behind the madness of the journal.NOT A GARCY FICI dedicate this to my peeps - you know you who are.  Thanks for the conversations, the theory bouncing and the fun!





	1. Chapter 1

With shaking hands, Lucy sealed the letter and placed it on the small mid-century modern table that served as both a desk and a dining space in the shabby, run-down apartment they shared together.  She had meant to say goodbye in person, but sometime during the night, she realized that this way was better.  What was she really saying goodbye to, after all? 

 

A life they’d both rather forget.

 

Taking careful steps, she eased her way over to the apartment door, slinging a knapsack over her shoulder while turning the knob gently and pulling it open just enough so that she could slip through without flooding the place with the natural rays of sunlight that the two of them had taken great steps to block out.  Theirs was a life of shared misery, torment, anger, and rage.  It was never meant to be more than a partnership; an unholy alliance fighting against an even unholier organization…but grief and a little too much vodka had lowered defenses and now...well, things were a bit complicated. Taking one last look around at the dwelling, that really served more as a hideout, she slipped through the crack and out into the world of the living again, praying silently that this mad cap plan they had hashed out when they both realized they had the power to change things, would work. 

 

It had to.   

 

With a deafening click, the door to that life, that hollow existence, closed.  She made her way down the rickety staircase and across the darkened alley to the warehouse where they kept the LifeBoat.  Fiddling with the combination lock, she opened the sliding door, coughing softly as a cloud of dust billowed in front of her.  It had been a while since they had taken their last trip.  Rittenhouse could track them every time they made a jump, so they always managed to find themselves in some overpopulated place, laying low in the dankest and grimiest part of town until they found it necessary to jump again.  Sometimes it was just a feeling, other times it was a close call with an agent…this time, it was a desperate act that drew Lucy forward. 

 

As she clambered into the time machine, alone…she could not help but feel the weight of years of regret and mourning weighing down on her shoulders.  Wyatt, Rufus, Jiya…all gone.  All dead.  They had started these mission into the past under the guise of observing and reporting history.  Her mother had encouraged her to do it, told her she had been preparing her for this project her entire life…and then she had taken a turn for the worse with her cancer. Suddenly all of the children’s books on historical figures, the late-night study sessions with her mother, the insistence that she read up on and study all eras of history over and over until she had them almost completely committed to memory, made sense. She was being groomed for a once in a lifetime opportunity.  She was to be the lead historian on a fact-finding mission to the past.  It was a groundbreaking project – not just for mankind, but for womankind.  She would be the first time traveling historian.  For the first time in her life, she would be doing something more than what her mother had done.  No longer would she be “Carol Preston’s daughter” she would be “Lucy Preston – a true pioneer.” 

 

Being born into Rittenhouse certainly had its perks...that's what she was told anyway. 

 

Wyatt had signed on as their “protection”, her personal bodyguard.  After losing his wife tragically, he had lost himself in his military service.  Volunteering for every dangerous mission, taking risks that no one else would.  He was reckless, he was brave…they had bumped heads on more than one occasion, but soon, it was clear that theirs was more than just a professional pairing.  She relied on him and trusted him…and he supported, encouraged and trusted her. Lucy let out a shaky sigh at the memory of him and how much she had lost.   

 

Rufus was the best pilot Mason Industries could offer apart from Anthony Bruhl, but Anthony had had reservations about the time travel initiative…which, Lucy had assumed at the time, centered on the fact that he was a family man and therefore, wasn’t comfortable taking on such a high-risk mission.  Rufus, his protégé, was therefore brought onto the project and Lucy couldn’t have been happier with the choice.  The three of them made a great team.  Seeing history through the lens of Rufus’ experience allowed her to see things in ways that countless numbers of history books failed to capture.    

 

For a little over a year, they went on these missions…observing, reporting…jumping through time, having their heads spin at the people they met and the events they witnessed.  But then, things began to change.  Rittenhouse had begun to make requests of them.  “Change this” they would say, “influence that”.  When Lucy faltered early on, her mother convinced her, as lay on her deathbed, that it was for the “betterment of history.” So Lucy complied…too easily” Wyatt had told her. They fought over that.  More especially when Carol passed.  Wyatt urged her to make her own choices, live her own life, but since it was her late mother who had been behind this project, she wanted nothing more than to make _her_ proud.  To fulfill her greatest and dying wish for her, her favorite daughter; to take her rightful place in Rittenhouse, to carry on the legacy that she had planned for her.  Lucy bit back the tears of regret that were so anxious to spill out over her too tired eyes.

 

On one trip, Rufus confessed that he had been pressured into recording their missions.  He had believed at one time that it was for documentation purposes; a record, that they could keep without having to worry about “jotting down all the notes in that funny little journal” of hers.  On an overnight mission, however, he had innocently neglected to keep the recording running during the team’s “downtime” in the 19thcentury hotel room they had found themselves holed up in for the night. When he returned to the present, he was threatened with the loss of his job should he have any further episodes of “non-compliance.”  Jiya was then ushered into the training program. 

 

That should have been a red flag.

 

Lucy had been naïve, however.  When Rufus approached her with his fears, she had laughed at him.  She groaned at the thought now...now that she knew the entirety of the deception they were all living through.  As the missions went on, and Jiya got further along with her training, more seemed to be requested of them on each jump to the past…and finally Rufus, in a moment of frustration, destroyed the recording device when he point blank refused to murder someone that Rittenhouse had deemed “too dangerous to history” to be left alive.  Rufus was killed not long after that….in a tragic car “accident.”     

 

Wyatt didn’t buy it. He had been harboring suspicions for a while, he had warned her, he had told her that something was not right…and it wasn’t.  She should have listened.  Even as Wyatt was training her to protect herself from the unseen threat, she was denying that there was any such danger.  She should have realized that playing God, as Rittenhouse had tried to do over and over, attempting to change history, attempting to influence past decisions, was wrong. Wyatt flat-out refused to do it, begged her to see reason, threatened to walk off the team…and they killed him for it.  He had disappeared one day, after receiving a text message that promised a lead on his former wife’s murder.  He had carried the guilt of her death with him for years; they had had a fight that night at the bar, and he had gone home, only to wake up to a police officer at his door informing him that she was dead.  He pored over every eyewitness account, looking for her killer…and for years came up empty handed.  That text, after years of research had seemed too good to be true…and it was…he was found bound, gagged, and shot.  If Rufus’ death was made to look like an accident, Wyatt’s was most definitely arranged to serve as a warning.  The unshed tears that Lucy had fought to keep at bay fell liberally now as she closed the hatch to the LifeBoat.  It was her family that had done it.  They had used Wyatt’s guilt regarding his wife’s murder against him and essentially lured him to his death.  She should have listened to him.  She should have left it all behind…they could have disappeared together, hidden out in some point in history…been happy.  This legacy that she was supposed to be so proud of had destroyed everything that she had come to love: Wyatt, Rufus, these missions.  The disillusionment, the anger, the unbridled rage she felt, changed her.  Wyatt’s death had opened her eyes…but it was too late…she was too late.  The man she was in love with was gone and nothing she could do would bring him back.

 

Everything Lucy had known was destroyed.  Her mother, her family’s legacy, what she had grown to love about history…it was all a lie, a fabrication of a life she no longer recognized as her own.  She had been a willing participant in their totalitarian schemes and she was heartily ashamed of herself for it.  Wyatt was gone.  Rufus was gone.  Her team…destroyed because she refused to believe that her mother could be behind something so completely vile and vicious.  She knew their deaths were arranged by Rittenhouse, she knew it with everything she had left within her…granted, that wasn’t much.  She was broken, vulnerable…a perfect shell for them to mold and manipulate to their will, but she would not let them. Somehow, she would get even…somehow, she would make them pay.  It was all up to her now.  She was completely and utterly alone.

 

Except she wasn’t alone. 

 

These missions were slotted to continue and like a mindless drone, Lucy obeyed.  Jiya serving as her new pilot.  She was scared…and Lucy, in a last desperate attempt to salvage whatever kind of connection she had to that life before this hell, reached out to her in a hushed and frantic conversation.  To her extreme credit, Jiya didn’t waver when Lucy revealed the truth to her…she was determined to help.  If not for Lucy, then for Rufus.  They would both continue on, pretending to comply with every request, every whim, every desire Rittenhouse asked of them.  Gaining their trust, making them proud would make it easier to gain access to the information necessary to take them down once and for all. 

 

Lucy played her part as the dutiful daughter committed to her mother’s legacy and memory and sycophant to the all-powerful organization that was Rittenhouse to excess.  She gained their trust, she became important to the institution in ways she never thought possible.  She wielded power and influence over people and events throughout history, she became respected, admired and soon became entrusted with some of their darkest and deepest secrets.  One such secret involved and ex-NSA operative named Garcia Flynn.  Back in 2014, two years before the time travel initiative had begun, he had questioned the legality of the funding provided to Connor Mason for the research and production of the time machines.  In retribution for his curiosity, he was targeted. Lucy’s hands shook as she flipped through the pages in the report.  Rittenhouse sent agents to his home in the dead of night.  Garcia Flynn had escaped but his wife and six-year-old daughter, had not.  As if the deaths of his beloved family weren’t enough, Rittenhouse framed him for their murder and he was currently on the run. 

 

It was all here, in black and white. She couldn’t prove that Rittenhouse had been behind the deaths of Wyatt and Rufus…but here…here was finally some proof that they were a murderous organization hell bent on wielding their unrighteous dominion over others no matter the cost.  She felt more than pity for the man as she read through his file.  He had once been a humanitarian, someone who lived to help others and now he was reduced to the status alleged murderer and fugitive.  A fugitive from justice and from Rittenhouse…which Lucy soon discovered was one in the same.   

 

Rittenhouse was tracking him, determined to finish the job they had started.  She made copies of files, she jotted down names, locations and together she and Jiya worked secretly to find him before anyone else could. She had believed she could help him get justice for his family…that, she hoped would ease her own guilt for the deaths of both Rufus and Wyatt and put those responsible behind bars.  It would expose Rittenhouse for the evil cult that it was.

 

It took months, but finally, Jiya found him.  He was holed up in some dive outside of Omsk…had found refuge there a year before after barely escaping a Rittenhouse hitman in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  The opportunity they had been waiting for had arrived.  The two of them slipped into the time machine and made the jump.  Finding him was no easy task considering he did not want to be found.  Eventually however, they were successful.  He was distrustful, at first.  She was Rittenhouse, after all, and presented herself as such.  But she swore to him that she wanted nothing more than to destroy it and everything it stood for…even if it meant the complete destruction of her family’s legacy. She made good on her promise when, the next day, they were confronted by an agent.  Trained, as she had been by Wyatt, she took the shot and saved Garcia Flynn’s life, thus beginning their shaky alliance. 

 

They were an odd mix. Jiya, the young engineer who was eager to please the woman whom she had respected and admired from afar…the very important daughter of the investors responsible for her job at Mason Industries.  Lucy, the historian, turned rogue assassin, cold hearted and merciless in her hatred for that birthright and legacy that haunted her every time she looked in the mirror.  She was Rittenhouse.  She had allowed them to use her and it had cost her dearly.  Garcia Flynn’s presence in their small little grouping was a constant reminder of just how brutal Rittenhouse truly was.  They were all of them heartbroken and lost without the ones they loved, but they were all of them driven to exact revenge on those responsible for their losses. 

 

Lucy naively believed that when she brought forth the evidence of Garcia Flynn’s innocence to the authorities, Rittenhouse would be exposed.  She stupidly supposed that would be enough to rid the world of that evil organization.  How very wrong she was.  She really should have known better, working as she did within the top echelons of the institution.  She knew that they wielded much more power and influence than even what she was aware of, but she had no idea just how far that reach extended.  Local authorities were even involved…there were Rittenhouse agents and operatives everywhere…in every walk of life.  Policeman, doctors, lawyers…and even, she recalled with a blush, college professors.  It really should not have shocked her, but she had still maintained a hope that justice really was blind.

 

Not so.   

 

Exposed as a turncoat, she was now a target of their wrath and together she, Flynn and Jiya went into hiding. Jiya taught Lucy how to pilot the time machine and Lucy agreed to teach her everything she could about anthropology and history. They began to form a plan, to disappear, to hide…they would have to blend in…if something happened to either one of them, the other would be forced to go it alone.  Both of them had to be prepared for whatever came next. Flynn, for his part, was still not quite trusting of these mysterious strangers who had suddenly appeared in his life…but, as he had nowhere else to go, no other ally in the entire world, he begrudgingly joined them in their quest to put an end to the organization that had destroyed his life.  Together, they formed a small team of outlaws and vigilantes.       

 

It had been almost two years since Lucy had lost Wyatt when Jiya was killed.  The last connection she had to that life before this hell was gone and it almost destroyed her.   Lucy drank herself into a stupor…and found herself seeking comfort in the arms of the only other person she could.  It was never meant to be anything…she could never love him like she loved Wyatt.  He could never love her as he loved his wife and child.  They had both lost so much, both had been emotionally damaged to the point of a blatant disregard for any type of deeper feeling beyond that of ally.  To become attached was to feel, to make yourself vulnerable, weak…something that could be easily manipulated and molded by that “family” Lucy had once been so proud to be a part of.  Her heart had died with Wyatt, all that remained was an empty shell full of hate and rage for the people who had taken him from her.  Flynn’s hate and rage had equaled her own…he understood…and that was enough.    

 

Jumping from place to place, hiding out, laying low, taking out Rittenhouse agents who happened by them…that was the new reality for the once celebrated academic, Lucy Preston.  She was a ghost of her former self.  Hell bent on revenge no matter what it took, she spent her days perfecting her aim, researching the history of Rittenhouse…the little she could find coupled with what she remembered.  She cataloged it all in her mission journal, hoping that one day she might be able to find a way to fix things.  She spent countless hours in libraries poring over books, attending lectures on physics and metaphysics whenever she had the opportunity, learning everything she could about theoretical time travel.  It had been said that to revisit a time where you already existed was impossible, but the more she read, the more she became convinced that for a short period, it could happen.  As long as you had very little chance of running into your former self, you could do it…and that…that might be enough time to make things right. 

 

Flynn had told her she was crazy, suicidal even…but the more she insisted that somehow, someway they could save the people they loved, he began to take notice.  Maybe they were both that desperate.  Maybe they both felt that reckless abandon was all that was left to them…what they were doing wasn’t living, after all…it was merely existing.  Their one and only thought and drive had been the destruction of Rittenhouse for so long, to talk now of hope, seemed like and exercise in futility.  Hope wasn’t a luxury they had anymore…but the idea that they could somehow find happiness with their loved ones once again, was such an intoxicating notion that soon, it became a bit of an obsession for both of them. 

 

He told her all about his discovery of the billions being funneled from the Cayman’s to Mason Industries, he told her about the day his wife and child were murdered, he told her about his run from the law and Rittenhouse and his eventual reprieve in Brazil.  Those three years he had spent there had been the longest he had spent anywhere since the murder of his wife and child.  She remembered her training, her past with Rittenhouse in the time travel initiative…how they had wanted to change things by altering the events of the past.  If she could do that…if _they_ could do that…then why wouldn’t it work?  Altering the past, ever so slightly? 

 

But how?  How could they do it? 

 

They would have to beat Rittenhouse to the punch.  Take over the time travel initiative before it became their project.  She had been brought onto the mission a week after her tenure meeting with Stanford was cancelled.  Knowing as she did, the ins and outs of Mason Industries, she wrote out a plan.  If they could go back…steal the Mothership…before their original team was formed...things would be different.  Their initiative would be to chase Garcia Flynn through time in an attempt to regain control of their beloved Mothership.  Rittenhouse would be distracted and with the information in the journal, Flynn could tip them off before it was too late, before they were in too deep, before they were blindsided by the revelation that they were in fact, pawns in this sick game of Chess.  They could work together and bring Rittenhouse to its knees.  They had the benefit of hindsight, they had the journal that detailed every mission and the history of Rittenhouse…it would be nothing to go back in time and destroy that cult before it destroyed all of them. 

 

She proposed her plan to Flynn who looked at her with a wary, knowing eye. 

 

“You’re willing to sacrifice everything to get him back?” he asked her softly. 

 

Lucy nodded, “If you help me save Wyatt…I promise, we’ll find a way to save your family too.”

 

“This trip could kill you, Lucy.”  Flynn countered.

 

She shrugged and let out a derisive laugh, “I died a long time ago.”

 

Flynn nodded with a frown, his eyes communicating a sadness…a regret that was entirely new. Lucy couldn’t quite make out his expression.  Was he hurt? Was he angry?  Maybe after all this time he had begun to feel something for her? But almost as soon as that look of pain had flitted across his face, it was gone, replaced by a stony expression of fierce determination. “What’s the plan?”  

 

Hashing out the remaining details, going over the dates…recalling forgotten information…such was their last night together…being “quite the team.” All that remained was one final page in the journal.  Flynn had long since gone to bed and so Lucy took up her pen and began to write. 

 

 _It was never going to work.  My heart always belonged to Wyatt.  I’m sorry if I hurt you, but you won’t remember any of this and if this works, then we’ll both have saved the ones we truly love._     

 

With a whirring and a clacking of metal, the long dormant LifeBoat sprang into action.  With one quick glance at the journal she had meticulously plotted, she nodded her head in silent resolution.  She felt for one fleeting moment, that perhaps it was a bit cold of her to take off without at least offering a good-bye to Garcia Flynn…but, she surmised, that was pretty pointless. 

 

He was, after all, the very person she was leaving to see. 


	2. Chapter 2

The LifeBoat touched down in an abandoned warehouse in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  As the hatch opened, Lucy carefully peered out into the dusty, grimy interior.  She knew from Flynn’s account of his time in Brazil, that he claimed a small corner of the deserted building as a sort of makeshift home.  This was where he had finally found refuge after months on the run. Here, he would finally be able to live in relative peace, mourning his wife and daughter….at least until a Rittenhouse hitman found him a year or so later driving him onward to Omsk. 

 

Lucy slid out of the hatch and landed with a muffled thump onto the concrete floor.  Adjusting her knapsack over her shoulder, she checked the perimeter as she was so used to doing these past few years…never trusting, never feeling too at ease in any surrounding.  Flynn had not exaggerated the condition of the place…it was a filthy hellhole.  Rats scurried along the far wall, broken glass littered the floor, and the air felt musky and damp as if there was mildew growing in some darkened recess of the place. 

 

Such was the existence of a man on the run. 

 

Hell, such was her existence since she decided to cut ties with Rittenhouse. 

 

Her time was limited. Traveling back onto a year where you already existed was dangerous enough as it was, spending an extended period of time there?  Deadly. 

 

Quietly and swiftly she made her way to a rusted metal door set in the far wall.  Creaking it open, she looked out onto the even dingier street beyond.  This warehouse was right in the middle of one of Sao Paulo’s many favelas…a shantytown, full of other outcasts and vagabonds looking to disappear.  Flipping open her small notebook, Lucy scanned what passed as a street for the landmark that Flynn had provided as a clue to where he would be. Once spotted, she made a direct path towards it before checking her notebook for the next landmark.  On and on she went until she found herself outside of a rundown cantina. 

 

It was Christmas Eve and the distant sound of church bells could be heard ringing in the nearby city. There was no such place of refuge here in the poorest corner of the city and from the despondent looks on the faces of those surrounding her, men, women, children, she knew that to them, there was nothing to celebrate, nothing to get excited for….it was just another day in their hard-pressed life. 

 

She understood that.

 

These past few years she had little to celebrate, but tonight was different.  Tonight, she would lay her head down on her pillow…wherever that might be…with the knowledge that soon…soon she might have Wyatt back. 

 

Ignoring the drunken catcalls that were being sent forth her way by patrons who had long since exceeded their bar tab, Lucy pushed open the door of the ramshackle tavern, her eyes scanning the dim interior for the one person who could help her…the man who had told her where he could be found. 

 

The bar was nearly empty, but even so, she hardly recognized the man that she had known, the man whose side she had left merely an hour before.  His hair was long and unkempt, he hadn’t shaved, and he was dressed in a ragged button down shirt.  Nursing a drink, he was huddled over the bar, his eyes, red rimmed with tears as he lifted his glass and muttered a toast in what Lucy knew to be Croatian.  She watched as he drained the tumbler in one fell swoop, gasping as the liquid burned its way down his throat.

 

“Hello, Flynn” Lucy said quietly as she positioned herself beside him on the next barstool. 

 

He made a drunken lurch for the gun he had concealed in his coat, but Lucy, far more lucid than he was at present, quickly pinned his wrist to the bartop and whispered dangerously, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”  She dissuaded him from any further attempts at overtaking her, by a steely gaze and a promise, “I am here to help you.”

 

He rolled his eyes at her sardonically, “Sure…” he said doubtfully, “”you here to put me out of my misery?”

 

“In a way.” Lucy said cooly as she relaxed her grip on his arm.  “I have a mission for you.”

 

He scoffed, “Maybe you didn’t realize, I don’t work for the NSA anymore.” 

 

“I’m not with the NSA,” Lucy admitted.  “My mission has to do with Rittenhouse.”

 

At that, Flynn made a lunge for her again, Lucy deftly moved to the side as he crashed into the barstool she had been sitting on.  Crouching down beside him as he lay, drunk, miserable and depressed on the dirty floor, Lucy shook her head at him and muttered, “I want to help you take them down.”

 

Flynn laughed as he pushed himself off the floor, sneering at her as he did so, “And just how do you think I can take down Rittenhouse?”  He glared at her as tears of rage pooled in his dark eyes, “Do you have any idea what they’re capable of?” he asked in a harsh whisper. 

 

“They killed your family.” Lucy said simply.  “You found out about a large sum of money being transferred from the Caymans to Mason Industries.   When you inquired about it, they murdered your wife and daughter.”  Lucy nodded at him knowingly, “Lorena and Iris…that was what? Three months ago, now?”

 

“Two” Flynn gasped out through his tears.  

 

Lucy nodded curtly, “Two.”  One solitary tear made its way down her dusty cheek, “It’s been…years since they killed the people I love…and Flynn, they are going to keep killing if we don’t stop them.”

 

He chuckled dryly, “And how do you propose we do that?”

 

With a slight tremor in her hands, Lucy reached into her knapsack, noticing at once how tense Flynn became as he watched the motion.  Realizing the cause of his anxiety, Lucy gave him a reassuring smile, “If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t have bothered chatting you up.” Flynn’s eyes met hers for reassurance, and though he looked no more relaxed than he was moments ago, he licked his lips and offered her an indiscernible nod of understanding and limited trust. 

 

Thus acknowledged, Lucy pulled out her tattered and filled journal, sliding it across the bar to Flynn wordlessly.  With a curious expression, he picked it up and began thumbing through its pages.  “What is this?  Your diary?”

 

“That, “Lucy said quietly, “is the key to bringing down Rittenhouse.” She gave him a wan smile, “Two years from now, Connor Mason will have completed the work on his top secret project…time travel.”  Flynn looked up at her incredulously.  “All those billions?  That is what they were being used for.” Lucy explained. 

 

“What do you mean, two years from now?  How do you know?” Flynn asked with an eye roll.

 

“Because I lived through it.” Lucy said simply.  “I’m from the year 2023.”

 

Flynn shook his head in amusement, “I knew I shouldn’t have started with tequila…”

 

He began to push himself away from the bar when Lucy grabbed his arm, “How do you think I found you?”

 

Flynn shrugged, “I’m a wanted man…it’s not very surprising…though, I have to admit, I didn’t think it would happen so quickly.”

 

“I only found you because you told me you would be here.”  She motioned to the journal, “We came up with this plan together…you and I…a plan to stop Rittenhouse, by changing the past to save our futures.”

 

Flynn laughed at her, “I helped you?  I don’t even know you.”  He rolled his eyes slightly as he returned to his drink, but Lucy was gasping out in pain, clutching her head with one hand, while clinging to the bar with the other; her white knuckled grip making Flynn lower his drink from his lips and turn to her in concern, “Are...are you alright? he slurred.

 

Lucy gasped out in pain, tears springing to her eyes as she gave a small shake of her head.  Flynn reached out to her anxiously, but a moment later, her features relaxed and she composed herself enough to address Flynn once more. “You will.” Lucy promised solemnly, meeting Flynn’s look of concern with a piercing stare.  “I don’t have much time left, so I need you to listen to me very carefully.” 

 

Flynn’s doubtful grin turned serious as he took in the intensity of Lucy’s gaze., “Alright.” He muttered, “I’m listening.”

 

“On October 14, 2016 Mason Industries will launch their Time Travel Initiative.  Rittenhouse financed this project, not to observe and report history, but to change it in a way that will benefit them.”  Tears sprang to her eyes, “We can’t let that happen.”

 

“We?” Flynn slurred. 

 

“You, me…anybody.” Lucy answered desperately.  “By changing these events, they reshape the future in their image. It’s a sneaky and tyrannical power grab…and no one but them will even know it’s happening.  The future will change around these altered events and no one will be any wiser.”

 

“And just what am I supposed to do to stop them?  Hmmm?” Flynn chuckled once more, “I’m a wanted man.”

 

“That’s why you have to do this.” Lucy implored.  “You already know what they are capable of…” Another gasp of pain had Lucy swaying on her bar stool this time, and Flynn reached out his hand and grasped her arm to hold her steady.

 

“Hey, hey…what’s happening?” he muttered out in concern, but once again, Lucy shook him off.

 

“You have to make sure they don’t use the time machine…you have to steal it…we need to expose them.  But it has to be before the 14thof October 2016…before they launch the program.” she whispered desperately.

 

“How?” Flynn asked incredulously.  “I don’t know the first thing about time travel…how would I even operate the machine?”

 

She pressed the journal into his hands, “It’s all in there.  A man named Anthony Bruhl will help you get access to Mason. He’ll pilot the time machine for you.  Tell him you know what Rittenhouse is planning and that you want to stop it.  He’ll listen.”

 

Flynn opened the journal and flipped through the pages, his expression changing as he read snippets of the historical events witnessed.  “This…this is incredible.” he breathed out as he stared at Lucy in wonder.  “Where did you get this?”

 

“It’s mine.  My name is Lucy Preston.  I used to be a history professor, but I was selected to lead these missions because…” she took a shuddering breath, “my family is Rittenhouse.”  His eyes darted up angrily, “I didn’t even know who they were until I was asked to be a part of these missions.”  She let out a ragged sigh as she recalled, “My mother was dying...and one day I came home and she told me all about this…once in a lifetime opportunity…time travel.”  Lucy bit back the bitter tears that had formed in her eyes, “She made it sound so innocent, so pioneering...but I was just a pawn in their sick game.  We all were.”

 

Flynn eyed her warily as he continued to thumb through the journal.  “And if I do this…if I steal this time machine…I’ll be able to save my family?”

 

“I don’t know.” Lucy gasped out truthfully.  “If we find a way to destroy Rittenhouse before it has a chance to destroy us…maybe…maybe we can.” She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes as she pleaded, “Somehow, someway, we have to save the ones we love…but we won’t have any hope of saving them if we don’t stop Rittenhouse from getting their hands on that time machine.”

 

“Yes, but…” Flynn began but his counter argument was interrupted by a loud groan of pain from Lucy who stumbled off of the stool.

 

“I…I have to go.” She gasped out as she blindly made her way to the door, Flynn trailing after her, “Please…please just read the journal.  Protect history…save our future.”

 

As she raced out of the door, Flynn gaped after, journal in hand, wondering if this battered leather-bound book was, indeed, the answer to his many prayers.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had written half of this chapter MONTHS ago...rnot long after I published Chapter 1...but it has sat on my desktop for ages, untouched until a conversation with a few friends reminded me that I needed to update this thing. 
> 
> I don't know how long this will be...it's such a dark fic....and a bit of a different take on what we got from the movie....but I truly believe the original timeline WAS dark and as this fic continues, I will share more of my theories of how we got the Futures, etc. I don;t imagine it will be an epic undertaking by any means....maybe another chapter or two and that's it, but since so many of us have been asking HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN? I wanted to have an origin story for JOURNAL Lucy. 
> 
> I am very sorry that it has taken so long to update this, but for those of you who read it all those months ago and were patiently waiting....I thank you for that patience. 
> 
> Reviews are always welcome and thank you again for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> Whew....so Lyatts I hope that wasn't too painful, but I really truly believe that Journal Lucy was driven to ruthlessness. Remember there's that bit of dialogue floating around where Flynn tells her that the Journal version of herself made him look like a Boy Scout. Something had to do that to her....and I really think it was the death of Wyatt at the hands of RH. 
> 
> This gives that line "Somehow, someway we'll save the people we love line" SOOOOO much more meaning. 
> 
> I plan to add to this. This season is CRAZY and I'm still writing Torrent, so I don't know when I'll get back to this, but I promise I will...because I've already got the next chapter plotted out. 
> 
> I would LOVE to hear back from you - reviews are so appreciated....especially when I'm writing a bit outside of my comfort zone. : )


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